


First Blood

by Brokenhorn



Category: overwatch
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 19:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7858153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brokenhorn/pseuds/Brokenhorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reaper recalls the fond memories of his time at Overwatch. Such as, his deteriorating friendship with Jack Morrison, his strong dislike for omnics, and the aftermath of the Switzerland HQ's destruction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Blood

_“We didn’t come this far to make friends with the omnics, Jack! What’s the point of this?”_

The outburst interrupted the briefing. All eyes were on Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes.

 _“Gabriel, we’re a peacekeeping force, now, in case you forgot. We destroyed the God Programs, we can move on now,”_ Jack broke the brief silence. _“We’ve gone over this-“_

_“Don’t just tell me to move on, Jack! I’m surprised you have the guts to even suggest that. You were there, Reinhardt was there and Ana, too. You saw what they did and could do. They could have brought us to extinction and now you want to shake their hands as if nothing happened?”_

Jack furrowed his brow, taking a deep breath. This wasn’t their first fight over the omnics, or even the direction of Overwatch. The two had been quick friends through thick and-

_“If I was Commander, Jack, I would have wiped them all out! Every single one!”_

_“Reyes, stand down,”_ Jack retorted back before Gabriel could say another word.

_“No, Jack! Not this time! I’m not going to stand down and let you walk all over me again! Ever since they promoted you to Commander-“_

_“Ever since they didn’t promote you to Commander, Gabe, you’ve been usurping my command! I’ve tolerated it so far because you’re my friend but enough is-“_

Now all eyes were on Reyes.

Gabriel Reyes knew how to throw a punch. Angela shifted uncomfortably, fighting that urge to run to Jack’s side or even to walk up to Gabriel and slap him across the face. Everyone wanted to intervene somehow but it was already too late.

Red dribbled down Morrison’s chin from his nostrils, the steaming drops splattered on the clean floor. Jack clenched his fists tight, his knuckles turning white, using all his willpower to keep a level head but, even for Gabriel, there were limits.

 _“Dismissed,”_ he shouted loud. _“You are all dismissed! And you, Reyes, are confined to your quarters until further notice!”_

Reyes didn’t say anything but he bubbled to the brim with pent up emotion, he could have let loose another punch but something stopped him. Was it out of respect? Or to save himself from further embarrassment?

He took his time getting back to his barracks below the Switzerland HQ, he had all evening to sit in his quarters until Jack decided to ‘talk’ with him about his actions. Gabriel didn’t give a damn anymore, all he could think of was the things he could have said or what he could have done to Jack _._

 _If Jack wasn’t so obsessed with kissing the UN’s ass, the omnics would have been wiped out with the God Programs,_ Gabriel thought to himself.

 

* * *

 

 

Later that evening, Reyes walked into the mess hall, it felt like a ghost town with no one else there. He wandered into the kitchen and grabbed a mix of ingredients. Tortilla shells, some beans, rice, and beef. He followed a recipe that his abuela taught him back in Los Angeles, something he always made when he needed to concentrate on something else and _think._ What was he trying to think about, though? How much he hated omnics? How much he wished he took a second swing at Jack for wanting to pretend the Crisis never happened?

He mused over these facts as he microwaved his meal, the smell was not quite like his abuela’s food but the act of making the quick meal was enough to make him homesick.

It didn’t taste the same, either. Reyes furrowed his brow at his unsatisfying meal. It was filling, at least.

 _“You should ask him for forgiveness,”_ a voice broke Reyes’ thoughts.

 _“Buzz off, omnic. I don’t need to apologize to Jack for anything. That punch said everything I wanted to say,”_ Reyes answered back.

Glancing up, he could see Genji staring at him through the cold green visor. That Shimada kid creeped him out. Too human to be omnic, too much of an omnic to be human. A _cyborg_ , he remembered the word Angela used to correct him. His cybernetic implants kept him from living the life of a crispy cripple. Even though Genji wore his mask, the way he shifted uncomfortably showed that his words struck deep.

_“I am not an omnic, I-“_

_“Yeah, I get it. Angela took pity on your dying corpse and decided to put you inside a metal shell and call you human, call you a miracle of medical science, or whatever you want to believe. You’re a guinea pig,”_ Reyes spat out words that felt like fire to Genji. _“If you read her notes on your case, you would know that you weren’t supposed to survive. If I was your brother, Genji, I would have finished you off while I had the chance.”_

Reyes never even touched Angela’s notes on Genji’s file, but taking his anger out on the vulnerable man felt _good_. Angela confided in Reyes about Genji’s insecurities, the unfamiliarity with his new body and how alien he felt amongst the rest of Overwatch, her worries about him living a good life were part of what brought him into Overwatch. It was the young man’s deepest weakness, on top of his brother’s attempted fratricide, and Reyes crushed it under his boot.

 _“You’re just another experiment to her,”_ Gabriel spat out again. But he looked again and saw that Genji had already run away. The Shimada kid was fast. He huffed a grunt and finished his cold meal – his abuela would be disappointed that her son wasn’t a better cook.

 

* * *

 

It was at least another hour until Gabriel finally reached the Blackwatch barracks. Young McCree smirked at the man as he walked past, _“Oh my, looks like someone’s late to their own curfew.”_

 _“Shut up, Jesse,”_ Reyes growled as he stepped into his quarters without another word.

It must have been ten minutes, maybe less, before a knock came to the door. Reyes slid off his bed, lying over the covers, and answered it. The door slid open and the hand of Doctor Angela Ziegler slapped him across the face. She was still wearing that pure-white lab coat from the meeting, wearing her loyalty over her heart in the shape of a metal pin.

 _“What the hell, Gabe? You broke Jack’s nose,”_ she shouted and gave him a firm punch.

The woman was a renowned pacifist, always standing at odds whenever it came to any military actions that Overwatch had to make. The way she did it always impressed him, a war doctor that was a pacifist sounded like a trope on one of those really old TV shows.

Reyes could only smirk, _“So, the non-violent doctor is throwing punches now, too?”_

Another fist to his chest hardly seemed to affect him; like Jack, he was also in the soldier enhancement program and it didn’t hurt. Not physically. Angela was a woman he cared about, that he and Jack both cared about, and this fight driving her to punch him? Regardless of her not knowing how to throw a punch, it left a wound in his heart.

She didn’t say anything, just huffed in irritation and harmlessly smacked him in the chest again.

 _“Jack can take a few punches,”_ Gabriel remarked.

Angela frowned, taking a deep breath as she tried to calm herself. She cared for both Gabriel and Jack, admired them both for who they were, but this fighting had to stop.

 _“Gabriel, please, listen to me for once,”_ she looked up at him, pleading. _“You need to make up with Jack.”_

_“Maybe when he stops being such a boy scout and-“_

_“Damn it, Gabe! He was already ‘breaking rules’ by not punishing you for all the other times! If you don’t apologize or do.. something, it’ll be different,”_ Angela interrupted. _“I care about both of you, you need to stop this.”_

 _“Okay, fine,”_ Gabriel shrugged. _“When he comes down to talk, I’ll apologize. We’ll work this out.”_

Angela stared at Gabriel for a long moment, _“He’s not coming down to talk. Jack’s going to call you up to his office and-“_

The door closed shut in Angela’s face. She could feel her face boil hot red, flustered with embarrassment that she came down to even try to talk some sense into Gabriel.

 _“Well, missy, seems like Gabe doesn’t know a pretty sight when he sees one. Fortunately, for you, I do,”_ McCree winked, leaning against the wall beside Reyes’ door.

 _“Let the old men have their fight. You and I, darlin’, could get along like a snake in a boot if ya reckon ‘bout giving me a chance instead of those two geezers having to share ya,”_ Jesse tipped his hat at Angela, adding a bit of a flourish as he settled his cowboy hat back on his head. Unfortunately for him, the doctor ignored the young gunslinger completely and was hardly impressed.

 _“Verpiss dich, Jesse,”_ she mumbled under her breath in German.

Jesse paused for a moment, _“Wait.. Did you just tell me to piss myself? Doc, I don’t understand a lick of German!”_

But it was useless trying to get a translation, Angela ignored him and left.

 

* * *

 

 _“Why’d you do it, Gabriel,”_ Jack asked as both men stood in the Commander’s office.

Gabriel paused for a moment, _“I had a very strong disagreement.”_

_“Do you know what this does to my command? To Overwatch? You usurped my command and you’ve damaged Overwatch’s image. I’m just grateful this wasn’t in public or..”_

_“Or what, Jack,”_ Gabriel asked sarcastically. _“Would the UN slap my wrists?”_

_“You’d be dishonorably discharged, Gabe. That would break Angela’s heart and… I still need you here. We both need you here.”_

_“Says the man who took my command from me.”_

_“I was chosen for this, Reyes! I didn’t decide to be commander, they **chose** me and I’m sorry it wasn’t you! I really am, but that’s not how it works, sometimes. I need you to understand that. I don’t want to do this anymore, Gabriel. This is the last straw. No more arguments, no more disagreements, no more.. punches, else it’ll be more than just your military career at stake.”_

_“Understood.. Commander.”_

_“No, Gabe. I don’t think you do, not yet.”_

Before Gabriel Reyes could react, he discovered that Jack also knew how to throw a punch really well. And now, as Gabriel stumbled back and grabbed his bleeding nose, feeling the hot red all over his hand and feeling it drip on the carpet of Jack’s office, they seemed to have a mutual understanding of how they felt about these disagreements. It had finally turned to violence.

 _“Next time, tell me and we’ll take it outside. Dismissed,”_ Jack said firmly.

Gabriel hoped that his blood never washed out of the carpet. Angela was actually shocked when he stumbled into her office with a bloody hand and nose flowing freely with blood.

 _“We made up,”_ he said with a grim chuckle that turned into a laugh. The wet taste of iron lingered in his tongue that night, even after Angela took care of his broken nose.

 

* * *

 

 

The memories flooded into his mind as he squirmed in agonizing pain on the cold, metal table. Gabriel could barely move but he could feel the waves of pain flood his nerves, his weak groans were his screams of agonizing pain.

_Beep, beep, beep, beep…_

Some machine beeped faster and faster as he lay there at the mercy of masked people he didn’t recognize. He’d never been on an operating table before. The cold metal and hot blood pushed against his back, he squinted at the bright lights that blinded him, some kind of mask was strapped over his face.

_“We’re losing him, doctor. At this rate, he’d die if we tried to attach cybernetics to him.”_

_That was funny_ , he thought. _He knew a doctor. And he knew he didn’t want to be a damned cyborg like the Shimada kid._

His thoughts were pushed aside by the pain again, tearing at his body. He struggled to speak, hissing and groaning instead. He couldn’t see what they were doing, the bright light above the table blinded him and burned his eyes. But he managed to reach up with his arm and grabbed the nearest one.

He could hear her gasp as he weakly pulled her closer. That blonde hair.. Jack was right, she didn’t need that halo to look radiant. Just a really bright light behind her head. Her blue eyes met with his, he mustered up the strength.

 _“¡Mátame, por favor,”_ he mustered to say in a weak exhale into her ear.

Angela heard him, he could see it in her eyes. His late evening Spanish lessons turned out to be helpful, after all. Even with both him and Jack there, Gabriel managed to teach them both a good deal of Spanish. He let go, where his hand grabbed at her scrubs was a blotch of red. _How many fingers did he have left?_

 _“Doctor Ziegler? What did he say,”_ the others didn’t hear him. He didn’t have the strength anymore to speak.

 _“He said he wants to live. Get the Rejuvenation Project ready,”_ she answered. But the look in her eyes said otherwise. _She lied. She lied, lied, lied! Why was she trying to save him after all that he did?_

 _No, no, no, NO! LET ME DIE,_ he screamed but only managed a weak gasp through the oxygen mask as the sedatives flowed into his body. The man had been torn up badly in the explosion, he couldn’t move his legs – _did he have them anymore?_ He couldn’t see, he couldn’t focus, he felt himself losing consciousness.

 _“Doctor! His cells are deteriorating,”_ he could hear faintly as he struggled against the sedatives, trying to stay awake. His mind was conscious through everything, even though the pain was numbed.

 _“Insert the stem cells,”_ Angela echoed through his ears. _“We can still counter it!”_

_"Doctor, his DNA is... ...severe mutation... something's wrong..."_

**_Let me die…_ **

* * *

 

 

Everything was hazy during the operation that turned him into this… thing. But Gabriel Reyes – _No,_ he reminded himself. _That man died on Angela’s operating table._

Now his body hurt all the time, relentless waves of pain that he turned into anger, hate, and a psychopathic desire to do harm. Reaper hardly used his phone anymore, only to keep in contact with the people who hired him to kill, but he still had Angela’s phone number. Even with all the anger in him, for mutating him into whatever he was now, he never messaged her. It would be too easy to trace the call, to find out where he was. He wanted her death to be a surprise.

The full moon hung ominously in the night sky as he sat, alone, a rare moment of stillness for Reaper. He went through his mental kill list. Jack, Angela, Winston, Tracer, McCree, Reinhardt; they all deserved to die. But he had something special in mind for Jack and Angela, maybe he’d kill them together or maybe it’d be quick just like the death that he wanted, that he deserved but was denied.

Regardless of what happened from now until that moment, Reaper knew that he was going to kill them last.


End file.
